Students at Bath University have voted down a motion to adopt a BDS policy on campus.

The motion, which described Israel as an “apartheid regime”, was rejected by 343 votes to 249 with 216 abstentions.

If it had been successful, the proposal would have meant that the institution’s student body would “end all contracts with companies and institutions complicit in the apartheid and lobby the university to do the same”.

The motion was one of 10 voted on by the university’s students at a meeting earlier this month – and the only one that failed to pass.

Yoni Chitiyat, acting president of the Bath JSoc who coordinated the response to the motion, said: “We only have about 30 to 40 active members of our JSoc, so we knew that single-handedly we wouldn’t be able to win the vote because we would be outnumbered. But by reaching out to other societies and friends we were lucky to win.

 “It was important that we speak out against it and defend Israel proudly on campus, even though it was very difficult with a lot of anti-Israel rhetoric going on. We hope that it will set a precedent for future students coming here and for other student unions.”